WVU Robotics places fourth in debut appearance at international competition

The Mountaineers@Work team placed fourth during its very first RoboCup competition in Salvador, Brazil (Photo supplied).

In its very first participation, the Mountaineers@Work team at West Virginia University has secured fourth place in the international RoboCup@Work competition, held in July in Salvador, Brazil.

Story by Kaley LaQuea, Marketing Strategist
Photos supplied

Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Mountaineers@Work was one of 9 teams to compete globally, and the only team from North America to qualify for this year’s competition.

“Our team exceeded expectations and surprised both the organizers and other participants, as first-year teams typically do not perform well,” said Guilherme A. S. Pereira, team faculty advisor and Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering professor at the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. “Notably, we ranked first among all undergraduate teams. The three teams that scored higher than us were composed of experienced PhD students and university staff, many of whom have participated in multiple editions of the competition.”

One of RoboCup international’s several competition leagues, RoboCup@Work aims to advance research and development of mobile manipulator robots used in industrial settings like factories. These robots are designed to work with humans to handle complex tasks in manufacturing and automation.

As part of a capstone project, the team spent two semesters preparing the robot for the competition. Electrical engineering majors Ethan Grose, Ryan Duckworth and Spencer Long supported system troubleshooting efforts. Long developed code for the robot’s mobile base (allowing for communications between each subsystem) and developed the robot’s power management system, while Duckworth and Grose worked on circuit troubleshooting and managed the team’s website and qualification video.

Mechanical engineering majors Alexander Konecny, Wilson Nichols, Andrew Jackson and Samuel Holder supported various stages of the robot’s design and development. Konecny oversaw mechanical design and sensor integration, while Nichols developed software for motion control of the robot arm, and Holder designed and 3D printed the device at the end of the robot’s arm, known as the end-effector or gripper. As team captain, Jackson was primarily responsible for the robot’s navigation and decision-making software. 

Alumni members Jocelyn Margrave and Garret Schuehler contributed to the robot design, test arena development and computer vision software.

In robotics, teams are faced with the challenge of preparing the device for any number of circumstances that can happen during the competition, including unfamiliar terrain, electromagnetic interference and connectivity issues. 

“As a result, we never really know what will happen when the robot enters the arena,” Pereira said. “In our case, while many teams struggled to get their robots working under such unfamiliar conditions, the software developed by our students proved robust enough to ensure strong performance, which was truly impressive.”

RoboCup@Work simulated an industrial environment where the robot was responsible for tasks like transporting objects between working areas. This required the team to prepare the robot to be able to maneuver around obstacles, identify objects and pick up and move small items like drill bits. 

“The Mountaineers@Work team was one of only three robots at this competition to successfully pick up objects besides the first and second place teams,” Jackson said. “While many of the first-year teams struggled with communication problems with their robot or unexpected behavior in a new environment, our team was capable of driving, picking and placing basic and advanced objects.”

Mountaineers@Work came in fourth behind three teams from Germany—and the teams that earned first and second place each brought nearly 10 years of experience in the competition. Despite travel delays that gave the WVU team just hours to prepare the robot for competition upon landing in Brazil, Jackson says that true Mountaineer grit didn’t go unrecognized.

“This was an outcome that was not anticipated by many of the veteran teams or the competition director, Asad Norouzi, who told us our team should be incredibly proud of our performance. This gives us great hope that as WVU continues this competition, we will be more than capable of competing at the highest level,” Jackson explained. “On a personal level, we learned about different cultures, about how even at other sides of the world, engineers share the same curiosity and the same drive. We got to laugh and joke and bond with people we have so much in common with, but could only ever meet through an international competition like this.”

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